A passive optical network (PON) is a system that brings optical fiber cabling and signals all or most of the way to an end user. The term “passive” simply describes the fact that optical transmission has no power requirements or active electronic parts once the signal is going through the network. A traditional PON consists of an Optical Line Termination (OLT) at a communication company's office, for example, and a number of Optical Network Units (ONUs) near end user equipment. An ONU is a form of Access Node that converts optical signals transmitted via fiber to electrical signals that can be transmitted via coaxial cable or twisted pair copper wiring to end user equipment.
Access PONs are continuing to evolve to provide more bandwidth to the end user. However, the predominant mode of evolution results in the replacement or new installation of new Optical Network Termination (ONTs) at higher bandwidths or point-to-point optical links. This means service providers are in a constant state of equipment replacement, or have stranded investments that have to be continually leveraged before they can consider replacement for enhanced bandwidth and services.
All known scenarios at this time result ultimately in ONTs having to be replaced to obtain higher bandwidth capabilities, primarily limited by the fact of downstream available bandwidth that must be shared by multiple end terminals (i.e. ONTs). For example, current Next Generation Access (NGA) PON proposals include 10G PON and WDM PON. 10G PON is focusing on 10G ONTs and 1G ONTs being able to share the same PON, but in order to get 10G capability a new ONT is required. Likewise, WDM PONs that have been proposed basically focus on providing unique wavelengths to each ONT. As stated, each of the known solutions requires a change to some, or all, of the ONTs on the PON in order to increase the PON's bandwidth. This is required even if only downstream bandwidth increases are needed (the predominant case).
Therefore, what is needed is a system and method that overcomes the problems and limitations disclosed above.